The other day, I posted a note on The Spine about the Jerusalem Book Fair. At the risk of being a nudnik, let me call your attention to two other articles about the Fair in Thursday's Ha'aretz. The first is another general mood piece. By Michael Handelzalts, the story is called "The fantastic voyagers are already on their way." It emphasizes the international character of the fair and its popularity among the general population. I doubt that there is any book fair in the world quite like this one. But the delicate souls in the western cultural capitals do not care. Many of their hearts are with the thugs, the uncultured and uncivilized thugs. (I will write about this some time.) The author has a conversation with a book dealer from Hebron who has had trouble--checkpoint trouble--getting to Jerusalem. But he's there. Why doesn't he carry books from Iran? Because there aren't any. Why no books from Syria and Lebanon. Because, stupidly, very stupidly, the Israelis won't allow them to be imported. Shiri Lev-Avi wrote the second mood piece, "On your doorstep, like the noonday heat," an article about a concert by Achinoam Nini, a ravishing singer with a ravishing voice, and the Neapolitan novelist Erri de Luca, two of whose books (Sea of Memory, God's Mountain) I know and love. They are available on Powells.com. Anyway, the concert was of Neapolitan love songs and really about de Luca's love for Israel and Nini's love for Naples. A side piece, perhaps, but a side piece about the cosmopolitanism and delicacy of Israel which many of you stubbornly refuse to see. Those of you who this applies to, well, forget about it.